Ascension of the Soul
by Anime Enigma
Summary: Author's first story. Tenchi is walking through the woods at night, trying to sort his thoughts when he comes upon Ryoko...


I can't remember normality anymore

Disclaimer: I don't own Tenchi Muyo! or the characters. They are owned and copyrighted by AIC and Pioneer. I just wish that I did. This is written for entertainment purposes only; I am not doing this for profit in any way. Please do not sue me; I'm broke. This is my first fanfic, so please don't be too harsh. This one is written from Tenchi's perspective, just so you know. I know, all of the stories are Tenchi and Ryoko, but I guess it's safest to start with a sure thing. Please enjoy my story!

Ascension of the Soul

By Anime Enigma

I can't remember normality anymore. I really can't. Ever since I released Ryoko from that damn cave, my entire world has been turned upside down. Sometimes it gets so bad that I even question reality. Heh, that's a joke. "Reality." Such a simple word, but yet not a damn person comprehends it's meaning, least of all myself. I just wish that I understood. But, hey, that's why I go on these walks every night. Just trying to sort out my thoughts about everything, about everyone. Which, of course, always brings me to the problem of the girls living in my house, most trying to get me to fall in love with them. But it's become a bit of a custom for me to walk the worn trails and try to figure who I should choose. And every night it's the same arguments. I sighed, as I looked through the treetops, strolling deeper and deeper into the surrounding wood.

Alright, let's start with the "easy" ones:

Sasami: not a chance. I mean, she's kid for God's sake. Not really, of course, she's a number of centuries old, but nonetheless, she's a child. Therefore a definite "No."

Washu: seriously doubt it. Look, I know that's she's not a kid, but it just sort of disturbs me the way that she deals with her emotions. Yes, she lost a child unfairly; yes, she had her husband taken away. But still, you'd think that the "Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe" would be able to find some other way to cope. Therefore, once again, "No."

Mihoshi: unfortunately, no. This, I sort of feel bad about, since she actually seems to be the most normal of the group, what with her being sane and all. But I just can't see a future in which we spend the rest of our lives together. She's a nice girl, but nope.

Okay, now for the big two:

Aeka: sorry, but I don't think so. I know that if I somehow ended up getting married to her, it would just wind up being an empty relationship with both of us spending the rest of our lives stuck on our thrones. I'm just a simple guy, and something like that would be too much for me to take. She's a good person, but not her either.

Ryoko: man, this is the killer. I really don't know how I feel. I want to think that when she tried to kill me that one-day at the school was how she truly feels, but I know that it's not as simple as that. I can tell she has feelings for me (contrary to popular belief), but I just don't-

"I wish Tenchi was here."

Whoa, crap! I stopped and looked around for the source of the voice, and quickly my eyes came upon one of the most beautiful sights of my short life. Ryoko sat on a branch in a nearby tree, the moonlight highlighting her cascading hair and making her look like an angel from above. But yet something was different… I couldn't quite place it. She also held a bottle of sake in her hand, but it seemed as if she had yet to take even a sip. 

She took a look at the bottle in her hand but thought better of it. "Sometimes I just wish that he would choose one of us. Life would be so much calmer." A short laugh. "But then he wouldn't be the Tenchi we know and love."

I could almost detect a slight bit of sarcasm in her voice, but I wasn't quite sure. I stood for a moment and assessed my situation: It was just Ryoko and I in the middle of the woods easily a mile away from anyone who could hear what we would say. Well, perhaps tonight would be the night I finally sorted out my feelings for her. I couldn't help but snort slightly in amusement at that thought. The quiet sound drew Ryoko's attention as she quickly sat up, suddenly alert.

"Who's there?!" she yelled in her most menacing voice, trying to cover the emotion she had been showing but a second ago.

"Hey, don't worry! It's just me," I replied calmly as I met her eyes.

That was it! Her eyes were different. I could see something hidden in them, something that I thought I had seen before but couldn't recognize entirely. Her eyes were… warmer. No, that wasn't quite the right word. But in a blink of an eye, her gaze changed to an expression of profound hurt and pain. But then it too was replaced, this time by a sad, melancholy look, which seemed out of place on her beautiful visage.

"Tenchi, what are you doing out here at this time of night?" she asked, her voice tinged with sadness. I was, frankly, taken aback. I had never seen Ryoko being this unhappy without being dangerously mad.

"Um, I was just walking, you know since it was such a beautiful night."

The answer seemed to please her slightly, but the look of melancholy did not leave entirely, as was evident with her response of "Oh," twinged with that same sadness.

"And what are you doing out?" I asked in response, trying to see if something was wrong.

She sat there for a long moment, evidently contemplating an answer. But the one I received stunned me.

"Please, Tenchi. Leave me alone."

As I stood there in shock, I tried to piece together a reason as to why Ryoko would be this depressed. Nothing in particular had happened lately that could have put her in such a downward spiral. At least, that's why I thought. Well, might as well be direct for a change.

"Ryoko, are you alright? You seem kinda… depressed."

If I had any hopes of her opening up to me and telling me her troubles, they were just about demolished with the tears that appeared in her eyes and the slow expulsion of breath in a sad sigh. She didn't respond and we both just stayed there a long time, neither saying a word. Then, finally-

"You know, Tenchi, I always sort of thought that we were like the stars."

In reaction to her statement, I took a long gaze up at the stars before returning my eyes to Ryoko as she sat on the tree branch.

"What do you mean by that Ryoko?"

For a moment I thought that perhaps I had gotten through whatever shell she had surrounded herself with on this night as she brought her lips up in a smile, but it quickly turned quite bitter.

"At first," she said, as she leveled her empty gaze toward me, "I thought that we were warm and close to one another, something I'd hoped for a long time. But just recently I realized that I was right in a way, but entirely wrong in another."

She paused to laugh bitterly and wipe away the stray tears that had started to cascade down her cheeks.

"But really, we just look and seem so close, but yet are truly millions of miles apart."

As it were, I'd already been stunned twice this evening, and this just about knocked me over. I stumbled to come up with a response to her cruel analysis but I could only come up with, "Why?"

That bitter laugh again. "Tenchi, don't you see that this 'relationship' between us is just a sham, created by two people who had never experienced love before and thought they had found something? There I go again, just fooling myself into thinking that you care about me at all."

That I could respond to. "Of course I care about you Ryoko. You're one of my dearest friends!"

"'Friend!'" she spat, as if the word itself were a curse. "Right, like you give a rat's ass about me! Face it, you don't think of me as anything more than a damn demon, a black spot to be erased off of the face of this planet!"

My mind whirled as she threw these painful accusations at me, like shards of ice at my heart. "No, no, no! Ryoko, you're not a demon! I know that now! You're a good caring person despite what you want others to think! Despite, even, what you might want yourself to believe…"

Before I knew what hit me, she had teleported down and slapped me across the cheek. Hard.

"How dare you even think that you know what I believe! I know that I'm scum! I killed all those people! I wreaked havoc throughout the whole damn universe! And here you are saying that I… that I-"

Her reply to my beliefs was choked off by her sobs rising from her throat. The beautiful, strong, captivating Ryoko was crying and it was because of me. Now, had it been any other night, any other person, I would have either ran or just stood there and tried to talk to them. But something was different. Maybe it was the moonlight. Or maybe it was the feeling that if I left her there, I might never see her again. Yeah, that was probably closer to the truth. So, with great effort, I walked over to where she had balled up next to a tree and pulled her close to my chest.

"Let me go!" she whispered and thrashed weakly to get away. But I held firm and softly stroked her hair, trying desperately to soothe her. After a long while she finally calmed enough that I could manage to talk to her.

"Ryoko, stop trying to put all of these terrible deeds on yourself. Kagato forced you to do his bidding by killing all of those people and damaging all of those planets. Kagato did all of that, not you! Deep down, I know that there is a beautiful woman who never had a chance to experience life for what it is before she was cruelly taken away and forced to do the bidding of an evil man. And because of what she was forced to do, that girl thinks that she too has become evil. But I think that maybe, just maybe, she might be able recognize that it's not her fault."

We both sat there for a long time, as I continued to stroke her silky cyan hair, hoping that maybe she would listen to my pleas. Slowly, deliberately, I cupped her face in my hands and stared within her eyes to gaze into her soul. Never before had I beheld such sorrow and wanted nothing more than to take her into my arms again and protect her from the ghosts of her past. But first…

"Ryoko? Can you believe what I said to be the truth? Can you live in the present and try to leave your past behind?"

She pulled close to my ear and whispered with the sounds of a torn soul, "Tenchi, I can never leave my past behind entirely since I know that it made me into who –what– I am today. But for you, I can try to leave behind that slave and live in the present. Only for you, Tenchi. I love you, and I know that you - "

"I love you too, Ryoko." I had to smile slightly at the shocked look on her face as she pulled back to look me square in the eyes. "I wasn't quite sure of how you felt towards me, but after tonight…," I shook my head. "I know I could never love anyone the way that I love you."

With a squeal of delight, she quickly wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a deep, soul-searching kiss. You know, the kind that you feel as if you have a connection that goes beyond the physical, where the kissing becomes an embrace of the body and soul. A kiss where passion overrides all thoughts and the body just does what feels natural. As the kiss got deeper, I began to feel the rocks and twigs beneath begin to dig into my backside, and slowly, reluctantly broke the kiss. If I was expecting anger from her for doing so, I must say I was pleasantly surprised as she just smiled lightly, almost making me be drawn in for another kiss (inadvertently, I believe). 

"What's the matter, Tenchi?" she inquired lightly, she tone soft and dripping with honey.

Stunned anew from the soft, pleasant nature of her voice, I momentarily forgot my reason for wanting to break that heavenly kiss. That's about when a particularly sharp rock got wedged under my spine. "Um… oh, yeah, it's getting cold, and the rocks and stuff are kinda uncomfortable. Are you ready to go back?" I asked, embarrassed that I was having a hard time remembering things while her smile was upon me.

"Sure, I think that's just fine."

I got up and offered my hand, which she accepted, giggling lightly. We walked hand in hand back to the house. Now that I think about it, she left behind that bottle of sake as well… I guess maybe you could say it represented the transition that she experienced that night, changing from the scared, tortured woman, tormented by dreams of her past, to a kind, caring woman who lived in the present.

But, yet, even that's not an appropriate evaluation. Even before that night she was a kind person, but it was almost as if that night's events kind of "finalized" her personality, as Washu would say. She was no longer that hardened woman that she pretended to be, or that frightened girl who was taken away from her mother and forced to commit unspeakable crimes. She became someone… in-between, being kind but also firm in her resolves.

And what do you know? I became a new person as well. No longer was I that "spineless boy," as my classmates called me behind my back. Sure, I was able to face down Kagato without blinking, but deep down I was just a scared little boy. But after that night where I talked with Ryoko… it broke all of the barriers that I had created to protect all of the girls from being hurt. But, in the end, they were all most understanding, even Aeka, which surprised me to no end. Who knows? Things might become "normal" sooner that I think possible… 

Yeah, and Ryo-ohki's gonna start hating carrots.

Well, that's my story. So did you like it? Did you hate it? Feel indifferent?

Please email me at:

anime_enigma@tokyo.com


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